Flatworm Eating Nudibranchs

[saralear]

Ok so since I couldn't decide what I needed (big surprise there!) I ended up ordering the following from Bulk Reef Supply:

2 x Super Actinic UVL

2 x ATI Blue Plus

4 x ATI Aquablue Special

1 x Actinic + Giesemann

1 x Aquablue + Geisemann

2 x KZ Fiji Purple

 

Hopefully I will be sufficiently stocked... since there is nothing wrong with my current bulbs (in use for approxmiately 6 months).

 

The reason why my original set up had soooooo many Geisemann Midday bulbs was because I really wanted great growth for the first year of my tank. Now that my tank is 1.5 years old I'm happier to have nicer colours from my coral, and sacrifice some growth.

 

Next week when the bulbs arrive I will be playing with many different colour combinations but I have a feeling with I might end up with...

 

Don't worry, pictures will for sure follow shortly after the bulbs arrive!

[nibor]

IMO

 

4 ATI Blue Plus

2 ATI Aquablue Special/Other 10/12K bulb

2 KZ Fiji Purple

 

If you want a bluer look, drop the 10/12K bulbs for another blue bulb and an extra purple. With all those bulbs you are going to have a lot of options, especially as changing the bulb order can make a big difference. I would run a Blue Plus in the front slot and a Fiji Purple in the second and then go from there, sandwiching the other bulbs between Blue Plus tubes.

[saralear]

So yesterday my bulbs arrived... to be honest, I'm kind of disappointed. I ordered a lot what I thought was a great variety, however it turns out that really I just ended up with about 4 colours and a variety of brands lol.

 

I will be playing around with the lights a little more, I definitly like my dusk/dawn setting I'm using 1 ATI Blue Plus, 1 Fiji Purple, 1 UVL Super Actinic and 1 ATI Aquablue Special.

 

But on to more important matters, last night I ended up sheltering a bunch of critters and corals for a friend who cracked their tank while moving it.

 

It was kind of the situation where I got a call at 9pm saying "I need you to take this stuff or it will die" So I went against my judgement and acquired a Yellow Tang. Immediately my Powder Blue was all over her and has her trapped in a small section of rock work.

 

My tank is big enough to house both fish, and my powder blue has never been aggressive, but there is a reason why I never wanted to get another tang, because I knew there was the potential for this problem.

 

Is there a chance that the powder blue will back off after a few days? Or do they stay fixated? I did all the usual stuff in an effort to give the Yellow Tang the best chance (for example, move around the rock work, turned off the lights, fed a bunch of food immediately after releasing etc) but is there anything more I can do for it?

[saralear]

Well as an update, yesterday when I got home from work the Yellow Tang had escaped from the tiny area of rockwork my Powder Blue had banished it to.

 

When I saw it, it was now trapped in a new corner, at least this area is much larger for her, it seems the powder blue is happy to leave her in my giant colt coral colony in the back right corner of my tank.

 

Hopefully she is slowly carving out a territory for herself, I did observe her eat a piece of the Sea Veggies Seaweed I put in for her.

[saralear]

As an update on the current livestock in the tank:

 

Blue/Green Chromis (4)

True Percula Clownfish

Powder Blue Tang

Yellow Tang

Green Mardarin Goby (arrived with the Yellow Tang, system is now 1.5 years old with 300+ lbs of LR and 6 packages of Reef Pods recently added so ideally the system will be established enough)

Starry Blenny

Royal Gramma

Strawberry Dottyback

Engineering Goby

Pyjama Cardinal

*No plans to add any new fish*

 

Inverts:

 

Various Hermits (50-60)

Various Snails (50-60)

Serpent Starfish (2)

Brittle Starfish

Pincushion Urchin (2)

Sandsifting Starfish

Bahama Starfish

Ruby Emerald Crab

Blood Shrimp (2)

Golden Coral Banded Shrimp

 

That's probably the majority of it for now.

[saralear]

Tang Update:

 

It took exactly a week, but on Tuesday of this week, my Tang was able to swim about the whole length of the tank. It seems her and my powder blue are now buddies and no longer nip or chase at one another. Instead they swim side by side and exist peacefully. No way would I have thought this possible one week ago.

 

Guess this was a great save afterall...

 

I was really surprised that neither of them "icked" with all the stressed. Especially because Powder Blues are famous for that, although I've never had any issues with mine so far, granted this is the first and last tang he will be introduced to.

 

So all is well back in the ocean, I will have some photos of my new lights soon, hopefully this weekend.

[saralear]

Can someone suggest a name for my new Yellow Tang?

[seabass]

Can someone suggest a name for my new Yellow Tang?

Here are a few:

Sunny

Sunshine

Butters

Old Yeller

Custard

Twinkie

Yang (like Dr. Yang of Grey's Anatomy) or combination of Yellow and Tang.

I know...lame, but nobody else is responding.

 

or my favorite, Mellow Yellow.

[saralear]

Here are a few:

Sunny

Sunshine

Butters

Old Yeller

Custard

Twinkie

Yang (like Dr. Yang of Grey's Anatomy) or combination of Yellow and Tang.

I know...lame, but nobody else is responding.

 

or my favorite, Mellow Yellow.

 

HAHAHAHA OMG BUTTERS!!!

 

I want to name it that so bad, except I think it's a girl... aw, I wish I hadn't genderized it already...

 

Guess I will settle for Yang (not because I watch grey's anatomy, but because I think it will be funny when people ask me about the fish and I can say , that's my yellow tang yang!!)

[saralear]

Has anyone heard of Nature's Reef Salt?

 

My LFS has this on boxing week sale and I was thinking of trying it out...

[saralear]

Really.... no one has used or knows of someone who has used Nature's Reef?

[seabass]

Must be a Canadian thing.

[saralear]

Well, the LFS was out of stock of the Nature's Reef so I have a rain check on that one. I will let people know what it's like once I crack the bucket. In the meantime I just cut into a new back of Marinium Salt, it seems to be working well and dissolves really nicely without residue.

 

Anyways I have some new photos of the tank. Unfortunately they were all taken under actinics or night lighting, but at least it helps as somewhat of an update:

 

[

[saralear]

And a neat shot of my feather duster covered in briareum, this rock is being removed and traded into my LFS tonight along with another heavily smothered rock of briareum. To put things in perspective, the feather duster is at least 7 inches long... so those rocks are huge!

 

 

This means my evening will be full of reaquascaping, and consequently more pictures to follow!

[seabass]

And a neat shot of my feather duster covered in briareum...

neat

[saralear]

neat

Thanks! I miss the little guy but I did trade all that in (along with some cash) for the following:

(AKA new additions to the tank as of last night!)

1 Marine Betta (approximately 3 inches)

1 Super Awesome Orange with Green Fluoresce Tube Anemone

And to fill the void of my huge feather duster I sacrificed with that rock I traded in:

1 New Pink and White Cocoa Worm

[saralear]

So a few pictures for updates...

 

My New Acro (although as usual the photo doesn't do it justice)

 

My Favourite fish ever (Named Chrons):

 

 

An old shot of my tank from about a month ago, it doesn't look like this anymore:

[saralear]

What kind of Crab is this?? (It was sold to me as a "ruby emerald" crab... he's huge now, his body is probably 2 inches in diameter!

 

 

Guess the starfish decided to hitch a ride...

[saralear]

So no one can ID the reddish black crab above?

[saralear]

NEW SPAWN GROWING!!!!

 

N-R'ers What is this?!?! (look at the yellow blob towards the middle of the picture - it's about 1" big in real life- below the toadstool)

 

So what is this little yellow dot under the base of the toadstool?

 

I'm certain that it was a part of the stem of the Toadstool but it doesn't look like it's growing into a toadstool because it has little "flower" polyps growing out of it, instead of what I call "tentacle" polyps that grow from the toadstool. It almost looks like a miniature goniopora growing (as I do have one right next door to it).

[seabass]

I don't know for sure. To start, you might look up Gorilla Crabs and see if your crab matches. I would guess that yellow mass is a sponge.

[saralear]

I would guess that yellow mass is a sponge.

Seabass, Thanks for the help, I could kind of see it being a sponge, but what I don't understand is it is surprisingly photosynthetic! When the lights are on (even though it is shaded by the toadstool) it has little flowers that extend and open. Then when the lights are turned off the "flower polyps" retract!!!!

 

No word of a lie.

[saralear]

It's been 2 years now!

 

I can't believe it...

 

Things are well on their way, and the aquascapes have changed several times. My colonies are growing along and I "empty" out my colonies every 2-3 months down at my local LFS. This hobby has officially become self-sustaining for me (which is fantastic). I have no intention of profiting off of my tank, but it is nice to know that I am able to offer the best care to my inhabitants with no cost to my pocket.

 

I have attached a few pictures of interest for update purposes...

 

My first coral I fell in love with (blastos)

 

The coral all my fish club friends envy (blue anthelia)

 

My all time dream fish! (blue psychadellic mandarin dragonette)

 

The Side of my tank (from the couch)

 

Twilight lighting (same side)

 

Front of my tank (view from the 'viewing bench') - ignore the reflection of my french doors!

[saralear]

My favourite SPS:

 

My center piece (scoll back to earlier post entries to see how this guy has grown)

[saralear]

What kind of coral is this, and can I frag it? (This thing is HUGE probably 10" diameter)

 

 

It is so big it is growing under my sandbed (as you can see from the white areas around the edges)

 

When I look at it, I can't figure out if it is a plate coral or not, although I'm hesitant to say that it is because it has many mouths (as opposed to just one mouth in the center) as you can see in this picture:

 

 

Because it has many mouths, I would think that I could break it up, but what do you NRers think?

 

P.S. The above picture looks to me like the surface of another planet